UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was dealt a major blow to his authority on Wednesday when MPs voted to make a no-deal Brexit illegal.

After MPs voted on Tuesday to seize control of Parliament's agenda, the House of Commons on Wednesday approved a plan that would force Johnson to seek a Brexit extension rather than leave the European Union on October 31.

Johnson will now ask Parliament to vote for a general election in October, but the opposition Labour Party is set to reject the plan.

LONDON — UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a fresh blow to his authority on Wednesday evening after MPs and a handful of Conservative rebels approved a bill that would delay Brexit until at least 2020.

Twenty-one former Conservative MPs, who were expelled from the party on Tuesday, joined forces with Labour and other opposition parties to vote for a plan to prevent Johnson from taking Britain out of the European Union with no deal on October 31.

In response, Johnson confirmed that he would ask MPs to approve an early general election on October 15 as a means of breaking the parliamentary deadlock, but Labour is set to vote against the plan until the no-deal legislation has been formally adopted.

What has happened?

UK Parliament / Jessica Taylor

MPs in the House of Commons — the elected chamber — have approved the legislation, tabled in the name of Labour MP Hilary Benn, but it still needs to be approved by the House of Lords.

Bills, the mechanism by which important legislation enters the UK statute books, usually take weeks to be approved by the Commons and the Lords, but for this legislation, that would need to happen in the space of just a few days.

That's because Johnson plans to suspend Parliament starting next week, a move apparently designed to prevent members of Parliament from trying to delay Brexit.

What happens next?

The bill will pass to the Lords. If the chamber approves it, it will receive royal assent and pass into the statute books.

Approval shouldn't, in theory, be a problem — the UK's upper chamber plays the important role of scrutinising new laws but generally approves legislation that the elected Commons passes.

However, Brexit-supporting peers in the Lords could attempt to filibuster the legislation, meaning they could try to delay its passage by introducing many amendments and insisting that they are voted on.

Conservative peers have tabled more than 85 amendments to disrupt the bill's progress, while Labour colleagues have tried to ensure that attempts to filibuster the legislation are blocked, saying it needs to be dealt with.

The bill is likely to be passed on Friday. An amended bill would then pass back to the Commons, where it would most likely receive approval early next week.

How will Johnson react?

Getty

The government is set to table a motion on Wednesday evening asking MPs to approve the election plan.

Johnson has said there are "no circumstances" under which he would ask for Brexit to be delayed, with aides insisting that he is being forced into a general election.

"If Conservative MPs help him to make no-deal illegal tomorrow and therefore create another pointless delay, the government's negotiating position will be wrecked," a senior government official said on Monday.

"In those circumstances, what MPs will effectively be voting for is to hold a rapid election."

Downing Street would first seek an election by bringing forward a motion for an early general election under the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act. Under the law, two-thirds of MPs — 434 — would need to support the prime minister's plan for it to move forward.

The problem for Johnson is that Labour is likely to reject the plan on Wednesday, insisting that it will not support such a motion until the no-deal legislation has passed into the statute books.

A Downing Street source said on Wednesday that if that happened, the government would simply hold the same vote again early next week after the bill is enacted.

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